The Sightless Alchemist
by Kattebutt
Summary: After a surprise attack after being out on a military mission, Edward Elric recieves a fatal blow to his head. When he comes to, he realizes that no matter how many times Winry asks him to look at her, he cant. And never will. EdxWin possible Royai.
1. Breaking

**Author's Note:** Hello to all readers! I'm here again with something new :) A whole new fic is here, **The Sightless Alchemist**. I have played with this idea a long time, but never really thought if I would bring it into action. But as I put a description into my other fic, **Alienized**, it seemed, though not incredibly much (No offense to my readers here), that the feedback I got there was pretty positive so I figured "Why not?" and began to write it. Though I have a thing for short chapters it seems...

But for those you who really begin to like this, I'm sad to say that the updates will be pretty slow since I'm still going to work on **Alienized**. But one or two chapters will come, mostly for me to find out of I really want to continue it and if the feedback is worth working for. But I still liked the overall idea really much and I though it might be a good change from all the fics where Ed gets amnesia, this has a whole _other_ issue if any of you figured it out in the summary :P

Anyway, on with the story, I hope you guys will enjoy the fic be patient for the next chapter which will come out someday depending on how much time i have when I begin in school again and how many hits it gets.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, nor do I own any of the characters of FMA. They all belong to Hiromu Arakawa.

**_Enjoy_**

* * *

_Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic_

_.:The Sightless Alchemist:.  
_

_Chapter 1 - Breaking_

--

_At times he asked himself, how he could not have known the fate that had awaited him in that godforsaken town._

_How he could not have foreseen it, how he could be so blind._

_He just never imagined it _

_To become literal._

--

Dark clouds was spread across the gray sky, hanging heavily over the cold and empty town and threatened to pelt the barren streets with ruthless tears and roaring thunder. The mild wind blew crispy withered leaves through the city dancing as the only movement at all. Here, everything was silent, still and empty.

But not far away was the stillness cut off by roars of conflict and malevolence and screams of horror. Some would call it a riot, but that would not be the correct specification for this conflict. True, the military was involved, but it was there were no uniform clad soldiers, no machines, no weapons. Nothing but a single person and his companion had been sent to the gray town. But still, no intent for war or conflict, merely an inspection to see how the inhabitants was managing their lives. The only proof that the people were in fact in the military was the cars, earlier hiding in the outskirts of the town, to make sure their prized soldiers would return safely. As for now, they were all sprinting down the empty streets.

But judging by the inciting and almost bestial roars coming from the center of the town and the bloody handprints and ripped fabric, the innocent inspection had gone awfully wrong. Through the chilling silence, the roars boomed like thunder, the terrified screams died down, drowned the continuing roars and sounds of shattering glass as one moved even closer. Only one sound made it out through the noise. Tearful screams from a hollow, yet shrill and loud voice, followed by the clanging sounds of metal colliding with ground as sprinting footsteps neared the center of the loud voices. The metal figure neared a small crowd of brown skinned men who were all yelling and roaring angrily and excitedly, gathering in a half circle around something on the ground, lying tightly against a wall. The commotion was worst in the middle of the crescent, where the men were throwing up clenched fists, clubs or stones and stomping and kicking around. The wall in front of the mob was smeared in blood and small hands with short fingers had drawn out crimson lines from the dark red stains on the walls, a frightening sign of the fact that, what the mob was surrounding was a human and a desperate one at that.

"GO AWAY! DON'T TOUCH HIM! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" the metallic voice shrieked and even though there were no damp streaks running down the cold metal face, the sound of the voice was betraying. The boy was crying.

The men back a bit down and looked at the giant figure nearing them at high speed.

"BROTHER! GET AWAY FROM HIM! IF YOU HURT HIM ANY MORE I'LL TEAR YOU APART!" the voice sounded again and at that the men began running away, though the threat only came from a young boy, the fact that they were hurting someone so precious to him gave the boy little to no reason to restrain himself in giving them the full impact of his panicked threat. Most of the men ran almost at once, while others waited for the big armor to approach them so they had time to inflict a few last kicks to the motionless lump lying on the ground. It all happened in a matter of seconds and as soon as the huge armor had reached its destination, metallic knees hit the ground with a loud clang and big trembling hands carefully cradled the broken body of his older brother as gently as if he was holding an injured baby bird. He gently brushed a few stained golden strands away from the pale, bloodied face.

"B-Brother." Alphonse wailed quietly. "Brother wake up, open your eyes. Please, say something!"

The pale face scrunched up in pain and his eyes squeezed together. They then opened to thin slits and looked up, unfocused, shady and glazed over in pain. His pupils swayed over Alphonse's metal face to the sky behind him from under the half closed eyelids. "Al..."

"Brother thank God you're awake! I'm so glad! Don't worry, the others are on their way with a stretcher, you just have to hold out a bit longer." Al tried to soothe, but flinched as his brother's eyes began closing again. "Brother? Brother! Keep your eyes open! You'll have to stay awake or something bad will happen. Here, look at me, Brother, keep your eyes on me." the young boy panicked and placed a big leather hand on the side of his brother's beaten face to avoid making him use too much energy even if it was only turning his head.

"I can't. Al, I can't..." the young alchemist whispered hoarsely and tried to reach up and touch his younger brother's face, but the strain was too much.

"Brother you're not thinking straight, don't speak it'll only make things worse." Al whispered and gently grabbed the trembling hand that was just reaching up for him. Roaring loud engines and yells could be heard approaching from afar. "It'll be okay, Brother."

"It... It was an... an ambush." Edward choked as blood bubbled up in his throat, making it almost impossible to speak.

"Please don't speak Brother, there's blood coming out of your mouth. Just lay still." Alphonse cried and held his brother closer to him and stroking his hair. But Ed continued feebly.

"They h-hit... they me...they hit m-me... in the... hard.. in the... head..hard... i-it hurts... my eyes..." he rasped unintelligibly, but trailed off as his energy died down and the words were drowned by the blood coming out of his mouth.

Alphonse let out a strangled cry and held his brother even closer. He was beginning to fear that he might even be causing him even more pain. "It's okay, don't speak. It doesn't matter now. First we have to get you to a hospital. We'll take care of the rest later. Okay?"

"But... I... m-my... my-" Ed weakly protested, but Al cut him off softly and held a hand on his cheek. The military men was by their side along with a few familiar faces such as Fuery and Breda who looked down at them with concerned and horrified looks on their pallid faces. Some of the men were running towards them with a stretcher and yelling things that neither of the brothers could make out. One we're pulling out a syringe with a transparent liquid inside.

"No Brother, I told you not to speak. It can wait. The others are here' they'll take care of you now. They're going to take the pain away, but you'll have to stay awake, okay?" Al whispered and began to release his grip on his broken older brother to let the military medics place him on the stretcher.

"Okay..." Ed whispered and smiled weakly in Al's direction. A man went and poked the syringe into the small alchemist's upper arm and injected the fluid as soon as he was on the stretcher. The small boy didn't even seem to notice the pain from the needle.

As the stretcher moved to one of the biggest cars, Al followed them, his hand still desperately grasping his brother's until he was told to let go.

Breda went and put a hand on the metallic shoulder and looked at him compassionately.

"Your brother's going to be alright. He's a strong kid, you should follow them and stay by his side."

Alphonse nodded and let out a tearful 'thanks' and followed the stretcher and was guided into another, smaller car.

"_Brother's going to be fine. I'm sure of it. He's strong, stronger than me. He'll be okay. Everything will be okay."_ Alphonse thought as the car sped up and went out of the town that could once have been called Lior.

Sadly, it was not _everything_ that would be alright.

* * *

_A/N: Yaay one of the most angsty chapters I have written so far xD Hope you enjoyed, I will try my best to make the next chapter come soon. _

_Just so you know, the incoherent stuff that Ed says is **not** typos. It's supposed to sound like Ed has a problem with thinking properly since he was hit in the head. He speaks the truths but you might need to rearrange the sentence before you make sense of it._

_And I bet Al would freak and yell scary things at people if they were hurting Ed. I'll explain later why it all happened. I guess you could see this as a sort of prologue or something. And yay for the awesome chapter title \o/ just really couldnt find anything more fitting xD And he **is** broken so... Maybe I should call the next chapter 'Mending' then..._

_Anyways, thank you for reading I hope you'll check out the next chapter when it comes and take care until then._

_Until next time_

_-Shirou Hana  
_


	2. Mending

**Author's Note: **Okay guys I'm back! First I'd like to humbly apologize. I go down on my knees and say "I'M SORRY I AM SO LATE!!" and I cry and I weep, but school is so very hard at the moment and will probably also stay that way until I'm done with school.

**.:Please read this:.: **As you you might already know I am not putting this story in first priority and I will work on my other story **Alienized **more now since that is the story I planned to focus on from the beginning anyways. Therefore this story's updates will come with very wide interval so you'll have to wait pretty long time between some of the chapters. **But** it doesn't mean that I've abandoned this story, I'll continue to write on it, just not as much as **Alienized**.

So because of this I'm going to treat you for a chapter you can chew on for a while. I tried to make it with a bit of a closed conclusion at the end of the chapter and as mild a cliffhanger as possible, but still enough to make you want more and not think it's boring. I tried at least to make it long, this is the longest chapter I have ever written on a story, but it's still not very long compared to other stories

There are most probably a lot of errors around in the chapter, but you'll have to excuse me since I have no beta-reader at the moment.

So be patient my dear readers, the chapters will still come and then I'll make them long so you again have something to chew on until next time :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, nor do I own any of the characters of FMA. They all belong to Hiromu Arakawa.

**_Enjoy_**

* * *

_Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic_

_.:The Sightless Alchemist:.  
_

_Chapter 2 - Mending  
_

--

"Okay where is he!? Where is that little twerp, who dares to run around and ruin my automail again!" a voice echoed through the white halls. The high sound was like an explosion and everybody winced at the sudden loud sound coming from no other than the blonde automail mechanic, Winry Rockbell. "Tell me where he is so I can beat the hell out of him!" she roared and stormed haphazardly through the chalky white halls. A figure came from around a corner and it was not hard to figure out who it was seeing as this person was even taller than Major Armstrong. Loud footsteps clanged towards her, but she hadn't come to speak with Al. She was there to teach a certain state alchemist a lesson or two with her weapon of choice she knew he feared the most. It was all ready and loaded in her hand, shining and looking as if she had just bought it. If she was to tell the utmost and honest truth she actually only used this particular wrench for one thing; to beat dents into Ed's thick skull. And she was more than prepared to give him more than a few dents this time. She wasn't falling for any hospitalizing this time, even if he was he'd still be able to handle a few hits or ten maybe.

"Winry, what are you doing here? How did you get here? How did you know where we were?" Al asked quickly almost with a hint of fear in his voice, likely fearing for his brother. Winry didn't stop, though, she just continued down the hall, not quite knowing where she went. But she was determined to find him she knew that much.

"I was in Rush Valley when I heard a rumor that Ed had gotten into a brawl again in Lior. They said he was thrown into the hospital again, but what I know is that if he got into a brawl that means he also ruined my automail again! If this hospitalizing thing is really just an excuse to make me go easy on him I swear I'll beat him all the way back to Lior!" Winry fumed and went through a big door, she was mostly acting on her guts. He was probably hidden in the farthest end of the whole hospital. "Al, which room is it?"

Al jumped still frantically following behind her, rambling protests on her intentions on beating up his brother. "Uh uhm section 30 F room 118, but I don't think you should-"

"That's just nearby, oh I can't wait to beat his face into an unrecognizable pulp!" Winry raged on as she got to the end of section 30 F. The hall felt too long and Al's protests loudened when the number 118 came into vision.

"Winry don't, it's really not a good idea! Wait, Winry!" Al wailed as Winry closed her hand around the door handle.

"Al be quiet, I won't be too long and hopefully he won't scream much." Winry just said, getting irritated over Al's frantic wails.

"No Winry that's not what I meant! Please don't Winry, my brother he's-" Al squealed as Winry pushed down the door handle and the door flew open.

"Al if you don't shut up I swear I'll-" Winry said frustrated, but stopped mid-sentence as she entered the room. Al immediately quieted down along with the girl beside him and all that could be heard was the slow beeping coming from the center of the room.

Al stood silently as Winry's hand slipped off the handle and found it's companion, hovering just above her chest. From where Al stood, he couldn't see Winry's face, but even though he couldn't, he knew that if he had had his own body he'd wear the exact same expression, even though it wasn't the first time seeing the sight in front of them.

"Al, what..." Winry muttered as she painfully slowly made her way to the white bed. She softly placed her now shaking hand on the cold hand careful not to let the needle, that was pushed in under the pale skin on the hand, slip out. Alphonse went to her side shortly after. All Winry's rage and irritation had drained from her body along with her urge to beat Ed up. He certainly looked like he didn't need more of that. His flesh arm was in a cast, not all the way to his hand , though, there had to be room for the tubes, that hand being the only one usable for medication. The other hand, as Winy had predicted, was completely ruined. You could almost have grabbed a handful of metal scraps and connected it with the port on his shoulder, and it wouldn't make much difference. The protective plates that gave the arm a shape of a human one was missing and short stumps of wire poked out from under the upper arm. The fingers were nothing more than flat squares without the plates and it mostly looked like a metallic skeleton hand. What was left of the arm was also extremely dented some places, she noticed. Winry couldn't help but wonder why the arm hadn't been removed since it was obvious that it wouldn't be of much use and also in the way, but she figured it might be because the doctors simply didn't know how to do so. It **was** complicated things they were dealing with and they might have left it as it was in fear of making anything worse. The rest of Ed's body was almost in the same condition as his metal arm.

Most of the bruises and cuts were covered by either bandages or the white covers on the bed, but in some places, the bandage wasn't thick enough, allowing red stains to appear on the crisp white cloth. Practically all of his torso and chest was bandaged, some places more than others, but the sheer amount of bandage that was wrapped around such a small body made Winry's stomach turn. Small stickers was placed around on his chest, where it wasn't covered by bandage, small wires running to the beeping monitor standing beside them, that being the only thing breaking the painful silence.

Ed's face had not been spared either, his eyes were most probably swollen and blue, but a damp cloth was laid over his eyes, possibly to keep him moving too much around with his eyes constantly in darkness and to cool down the beat up face as well as take away a bit of the pain. His lips was also swollen and also sported many cuts and were dry and cracked. His nose was blue, almost purple, and a small piece of metal was fitted around the bridge of his nose to keep it in place as it healed. Cuts were sprinkled all over his face, mostly on his cheeks, lips and eyebrows, but they were all covered by plasters in many different sizes. Bandages was trailing his jaw and around his forehead and even that was stained with red. His breaths came out slow and quietly, but they were raspy and slightly struggled. There were red tints in his hair, a faint sign that it had been soaked in blood, but washed as much as possible, but still not enough to take away the red shades in it.

Winry felt enraged all over again, but this time it wasn't Ed she wanted to beat up. In fact she wanted to beat up those Lior bastards more than she had ever wanted to hit Ed. She wasn't even sure one wrench would be enough, or maybe a wrench just wasn't powerful or deadly enough. How dared they do something like this to him!? What had he ever done to deserve something like this?

"What happened to him Al?" she asked quietly, her voice cracking betraying her efforts of holding in her tears and block out her anger. Al looked at her and she could see the pain in his hollow eyes clearly, it didn't require eyesight to see that. Al sighed and ran a big finger down the side of Ed's least hurt cheek.

"He... Colonel Mustang had sent him on a mission in Lior... it was nothing special really, just Ed going into the city to see if everything was working out properly for the people. It was only Brother and I who went in, some soldiers and medical people was in the outskirts of the city. Brother and I split up because the town seemed completely barren. There were no people and it worried us. We split up to see if we could find someone or find out why there were no people. After a while I saw people looking through the windows, hiding. I asked them why they were hiding, but they wouldn't answer me. An old woman told me though, that they knew we were coming. She began to cry and wailed that it was all 'his' fault and that they were going to kill 'him'. I didn't know who it was that she was talking about until she mentioned that it would all have been better if Cornello was just there. Brother was the one who rid the town of Cornello, we believed it had been a good thing, but seeing the condition the town was in it seems it wasn't after all and they all blamed Ed for it. After that I panicked and told the military people to look for Brother. I was the one who found him though, all I had to do was follow the blood trails." Al said and let out a strangled sob as he brought up a bad memory. But he continued, his voice feeble and sad. "There was a big mob of men standing close to a wall and I knew that had to be where Brother was. In the middle of the mob. They... they were hitting him, beating him up, some even had clubs and stones with them and I got so scared and angry I just wanted to rip them all apart. I think I would have done it, too, if they hadn't run away when I got near. But... that's when I saw him. He was... the men, they had practically beaten him into a pulp and he just laid there with blood everywhere. His arm was completely broken, both of them, and I could hardly see his face for blood and wounds. He was awake though, barely, but still enough to speak to me. But thinking of that only makes it worse, he was awake through the whole thing. It must have been so painful. But while I now loathe the people of Lior for what they did to my brother, I can't help but wonder **why**. I can't understand how they could let themselves beat him up like they did just like that. It was completely unprovoked and as Brother said 'it was an ambush'. But why would they go to such violent lengths? And just what did my brother do that was so horrible that he deserved a beating like that? He just did what he thought was right. That's not a crime. I just don't understand, Winry, my brother is so kind! He's so kind and selfless! Who could ever wish for him to suffer like that? Are people really that heartless?" Al said, almost yelling the last few words and choking on his own anger and despair. Winry felt the lump in her throat grow, but she wanted to remain calm in front of Al. That was the only thing she could really do for him at the moment.

"I don't know Al. I honestly don't know, I'm just as angry as you are. But tell me, Al, how is he doing now? He doesn't look all that good now, but from what you told me, he must have looked much worse."

Al made a noise that sounded like he was swallowing or pausing before speaking. "You know my brother, even though he's barely able to stay conscious for more than a few minutes, he's still stubborn. He gets angry that he's can't move and squirms around when he has enough energy. I wish he'd stop doing that though, he just makes everything worse, but that's just my brother for you. It makes me happy though, to see him have so much energy even though he's in such a bad condition. But he's healing and I'm very relieved over that. His nose is getting better, I can see it by looking now and his lips, too. He hasn't opened his eyes yet though, he says they hurt. That's also why we covered them with the cloth." Al sighed a sigh that made it apparent that he was smiling slightly inside the armor and Winry felt herself relax a little. The mood was getting a bit lighter and she certainly preferred to hear about how Ed was healing instead of how hurt he was. "Even in this condition Brother still makes me proud. It's amazing that he's still able to get mad when he can barely even speak or breathe properly. He's so strong it makes me envious over him. It's only his height that's small." Al said and chuckled quietly. Winry joined him quietly as well, but fondly all the while.

"It's a good thing he's not awake to hear that." she said and smiled at Al and then at his brother. Yeah Ed was strong, very strong. Stronger than anyone she had ever met and ever would meet. Suddenly she couldn't even understand why she even doubted that he'd survive such a thing. Of course he would. Ed would never die over such a thing. He could survive everything, he was practically invincible. Or at least in Winry's head he was, but the thought comforted her and she believed that and most probably always would.

Just then Ed's breath hitched in his throat and he took a few quick breaths only to let out a quiet moan. Then he sighed and turned his head ever so slightly, his mouth slightly agape until it began moving slowly, trying to form words, but not quite having the strength to push them out. After a few huffs of air he finally managed to make it sound like the letter 'A'. After that the 'L' came easily. Al's head jerked at the sound of his name being called from the third occupant of the room, neither Al nor Winry expecting Ed to suddenly wake up, much less speak up.

"Brother? Brother are you awake?" Al said and went to his brother's side immediately. He put a hand on the remains of Ed's automail arm, seeing as the other arm was already occupied with Winry's hands.

"Al... Al I can't see... Why can't I see...?" Ed whispered and Al sighed, an invisible smile appearing.

"That's because of the wet cloth we placed over your eyes. Do they still hurt?" Al asked and shifted the cloth over his eyes. Ed nodded, but said nothing. His eyebrows moved slightly upwards under the cloth in what appeared to be wonder.

"Al... why're... why're your hands so... warm?" Ed asked quietly and his flesh hand twitched slightly under the pressure of another hand on top of his own.

"That's not mine Brother. That's Winry's. It's good timing that you woke up now Brother, right when Winry comes to visit." Al said cheerfully.

"_Correction, right when Winry comes to beat you up."_ Winry scolded herself in her mind guiltily. Her grip on Ed's hand tightened.

"Winry?" Is she here?" Ed whispered and his head jerked as if to see if she was really there.

"Yeah Ed, I'm right here." Winry said with a warm smile even though he couldn't see it.

Ed's beat up lips twitched into a smile and his hand twitched again. "Hey...Win... you... going to beat me up... 'cuz I broke your... automail... again?" he rasped and his smile grew, but subsided quickly after, the cuts on his lips was painfully being pulled at when he smiled too widely. Instead he just settled with a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth.

Winry shook her head. "No not now. I'll wait till you get better. Then I'll beat the hell outta you." Winry said, her voice jumped slightly with mirth. She felt so relieved that Ed was awake and well. Well, not 'well', but at least better than she had thought.

"Hah damn.. I was... hoping could be... spared... one time." he said and Winry noticed that he was stumbling over the words. She felt bad that he was straining himself just to speak with her. She didn't answer, simply gave his hand another squeeze. On the other side of the bed Al moved, his big hand carefully taking the cloth that was covering his brother's eyes and stood up. "I'll just go wring the cloth, in the meantime your eyes can get a bit of air, they might need that." Al said and went over to the sink near the door. Winry frowned at the sight of Ed's lidded eyes as they were revealed from under the cloth. They were swollen and blue, almost the same shade as his nose only a bit more red. A narrow gash trailed down from his eyebrow, over his eye and ending at the cheekbone. It didn't look as painful as other cuts she'd seen on his face at other times, but it was still enough to leave his left eye more tightly closed than the other one. His eyes were already squeezed tightly together as it was and his brows were knit as much as they could without causing too much unnecessary pain, as a result of the bright light seeping in through the closed lids. The swollen eyes only added up to the saddening picture of the beat up Ed and Winry felt bad again, her mood falling to the ground once again. She didn't really notice her shaking breath nor the tears in her eyes until Ed made a sound that made it apparent that he had somehow noticed.

"Don't be sad... Winry. I'm not dead... or anything. I'm just me... getting into stupid fights... as always." he mumbled feebly pausing in the middle of his sentences to breathe or swallow.

"_But this is __**not**__ the same Ed. You've never been beaten so much so that you were about to die. It's not just one of your usual reckless fights. This was you getting assaulted by a big group of armed men. Why do you always have to blame yourself and try to comfort me? I'm not the one who needs comfort here, you big stupid dummy."_ Winry thought and frowned, grateful that Ed couldn't see it. She just rubbed his hand with her thumb affectionately, she figured that touch was probably the easiest thing for him to perceive in his condition and perhaps also the most comforting.

"Don't... worry Win... I'll be... up and around in... no time... wait 'n'... see..." he rasped before his body made a jerk and a small painful racking cough crawled it's way up his throat, coming out as something that sounded more like a hard hiss or a raspy exhale than an actual cough, but the way his face contorted in pain it was obvious that he was struggling with a cough that wasn't even supposed to be there. Winry quickly looked around with a panicked look for something to help with, but Al was already on it, grabbing a glass from a small table and bowing down. He placed a big hand on his brother's head and ever so carefully let the crystal clear water pour down between his brother's parted lips. Ed's teeth first clenched, then the lips followed and his wince seemed to ease soon after and he let out a long raspy breath. His breaths came out calmly again, though it sounded slightly more struggled and raspy, as Al carefully placed the cloth back over his swollen eyes.

"D...D-Damn, that...hurt like hell." he complained hoarsely, his eyebrows knit sourly under the cloth. His head twitched in Al's direction and the corners of his lips twitched again. "Thanks Al...that..." he whispered, but trailed off.

"Brother you seem tired, I'll go get you some painkillers before you go to sleep again. Winry, can you please try and keep him awake until I come back?" Al said, already on his way through the door. Apparently he hadn't even considered that Winry might decline. Of course she hadn't considered declining either and simply nodded. Satisfied, Al exited and his loud footsteps could be heard in the halls until they were completely gone.

Winry turned her gaze back to Ed again. His head was slumped slightly against the white pillow and his mouth was slightly agape. "G_reat, he already fell asleep..."_ Winry thought, she felt bad for having to wake him up, but Al had asked her to do so. She carefully let her hand glide over his. "Ed?" she called quietly. She gently tabbed her finger on his hand, calling his name again. Then she fell silent. The hand that was holding his hesitantly moved up to his face. Her fingertips graced the plasters on his cheekbone and her palm closed over his whole cheek, her thumb gently stroking a spot where there were no plaster or cuts. She silently reveled in the small opportunity to touch him in such an affectionate way without him and his boisterous personality ruining it all. She let her fingers run over his cracked lips, they were still slightly damp from the water Al had given him. She moved her hand to cup his face again and decided that she might have to wake him up before Al came back and noticed that she had failed at her otherwise simple task. "Ed?" she called as her hand moved back down to his cold one and she clutched it as tightly as she dared.

"Ed?" she called louder.

Still no response.

"Ed!" she called and carefully padded his shoulder.

His head jerked in a strangely slow way and turned towards Winry, his eyebrows was raised slightly again. "What?" he whispered in an almost inaudible tone.

"You fell asleep." Winry simply said.

"No...I didn't..."

"Yes you did." Winry muttered sharply. What an odd time to start a pointless argument.

"I know... that better... better than... you..." he rasped and swallowed.

"Ed, just be quiet. You're wasting your energy on being stubborn." Winry sighed. Right on cue, Al's footsteps could be heard clanging down the hall. It didn't take long for him to enter through the door and he immediately went to his brother's side.

"Winry do you think you can lift Ed's head a little? It'll make it easier for him to swallow these pills." Al said as he carefully turned Ed's head. Winry nodded and gently slid her hands under his head, her fingers immediately tangled themselves in his sun colored hair. Ever so carefully she lifted his head up, receiving a few groans from the blonde alchemist as there came extra strain on his already hurting head. "Sorry Ed." Winry mumbled quietly and she wasn't even sure if Ed even heard her, or Al for that matter.

"Brother do you think you can swallow these? They'll make the pain go away." Al said quietly and carefully closed his thumb and index finger around the older brother's chin and slowly pulled his mouth slightly open. Ed just let out a breath in response also knowing that Al wasn't even going to argue over it. The younger Elric then popped three small white pills into the older alchemist's mouth and then gently poured some of the water from the glass into his mouth. He closed Ed's mouth again and gently pushed his chin upwards to make the swallowing go easier. "And swallow now." Al muttered to his brother who slowly and feebly obeyed. When Winry placed his head back down he shifted stiffly on the bed before growing silent as he lay motionless, the only movement was his bandaged chest moving upwards in quick struggled jerks. It was obvious that the painkillers hadn't taken effect and that until they did it would only get worse. She hadn't even noticed that he was giving out signs of him being in pain. Maybe Al was the only one who was actually able to see that. The feeling of hatred and pure rage bubbled up in Winry's stomach again and she seriously considered asking Hawkeye is she had a spare pistol she could borrow. Or maybe she could ask Colonel Mustang how painful it could be to burn a human slowly one spot at a time. She scared herself with her sadistic train of thoughts, but never in her life had she felt so enraged. For the first time of her life she knew she wasn't even going to hesitate to do something bad to those bastards that did this to Ed. Good thing they were far away from here.

Ed's breaths slowly slowed down and he began to breathe more evenly as he welcomed the sleep that was taking over. After a while looking at the oldest of the three friends Al sighed and pulled the blanket a bit higher over his brother's chest. Winry could see the hurt evident in the metal body, it had taken her a surprisingly short time to figure out how to do so and she most certainly knew when he was sad. And he definitely was at the moment and a tear could just as well run down his cheek as he let the back of his big hand run over the golden hair in a gentle, yet sad and longing stroke. Winry felt so lucky to be able to actually **feel** that silken hair grace her skin, she could only imagine how much Alphonse wanted to be able to feel his brother under his fingers. It reminded her just how close the two brothers were, yet still how very far they were. It really was no wonder why Ed felt so determined to restore Al's body. Those two knew each other better than anyone did and it was quite certain it would stay that way as well.

Just then the door opened and two uniform clad figures entered, but seeing as their appearance didn't appear so boisterous it figured they knew of the person resting in the bed. They continued into the room and stopped at the end of the bed. The tallest leaned on the edge of the bed with his elbows while the other simply stood silently beside him. No introduction was necessary, both Alphonse and Winry knew perfectly well, who these two soldiers were.

Al nodded towards them, hand still touching Ed's cheek lightly.

"Good afternoon Colonel Mustang, Lieutenant Hawkeye." Al said politely, turning towards them and bowing lightly. Winry simply nodded in their direction, not feeling that it was really necessary and also she still felt rather guilty from her sudden arrival when all she really had in mind was to give Ed an earful of things Al would be better off not hearing.

"Hello Alphonse, Miss Rockbell. I was just researching the Lior case I thought I'd check up on Fullmetal before returning to work. How is he doing?" Roy asked and looked down at his subordinate.

"Actually he's getting better, he woke up just now, but now he's asleep again. It wasn't long though, but he spoke pretty well this time." Al replied and seemed to smile inside the metal armor. Roy smirked at the younger Elric.

"Well that's good to hear. I can't stand seeing kids in the hospital like that. Plus, he needs to be up and around soon, I'm still waiting for a rapport from his latest mission." Roy joked and the tension quickly eased. Winry suddenly felt a question queue-jumping her line of thoughts and before she knew of it it popped out of her mouth.

"But-! But you knew of Lior's situation didn't you? You knew the townsfolk doesn't like Ed. So why would you put Ed on a mission like that of you knew it would be dangerous? Do you not care for your subordinates safety?" Winry said. Roy's brown furrowed before he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked at her.

"Guess you haven't heard the real story, huh? Damn gossip. Well it goes like this: The top brass is, in my opinion, a corrupted lot and for some reason they'd do anything to start a conflict. The case in Lior is a tricky one since they seem restless, but not aggressive, at least not enough to let anyone start a conflict. They needed a riot of sorts. They looked up Fullmetal's profile and saw that he had been in Lior and that they had been quite infuriated at him for taking away their priest. Ed of course didn't know of this so he didn't decline. Why the brat keeps blaming himself now will stay a mystery for me though. I didn't know much of their violent tendencies at that time either and regrettably didn't do much to stop it, but I did try and complain, but being up against the top brass, including Fuhrer Bradley himself, I stood a little chance. So they sent the kid on their so called "survey" in Lior. And after that I'm sure you have heard the rest of the story from Alphonse. The **real** one of course." he paused and his eyes looked harder as he looked back at Winry. "And for that one about be caring for my subordinates, I must admit I find myself rather offended. A blow towards my subordinates is a blow towards myself. This may sound cheesy and I'm pretty sure it is too, but I want to protect my subordinates and I want them to be safe. I'd rather take the hit myself than let one of my subordinates get hurt and that goes for Ed too. He's just as much part of our team as all the others and as much as I hate to say this, I want to help him and protect him. That's the reason why I'm investigating on the Lior case." he finished and his eyes softened, but they burned with more anger than before.

"But I can't honestly say I'm against the military wanting to fight against the Lior people, we don't really owe them much at the time and they'll have to look long for sympathy now. They're a real bunch of cowardly bastards. Miss Rockbell, you, being an automail expert, must know how Ed's automail has been broken." Roy said darkly and watched as Winry turned her head to take a look. Apparently it didn't require much time to find the answer as her head quickly turned back at Roy, her eyes big in disbelief.

"Rocks.." she whispered.

"Correct. The townsfolk had already seen much of Ed's automail and also seen what he's capable off. Using a sneak attack would give them them the element of surprise. Having him on the ground against a wall gave him less freedom to move and them more time to break his automail. I don't know if it's painful to have your automail broken and I certainly hope not, because it looks like it took some time for them to make it cease functioning, if it **is** painful it's been no less than hell. With his automail arm and leg broken they took his opportunity to escape and his ability to defend himself, which obviously left him helpless and vulnerable against at least a dozen of big angry men. How they could even make themselves hit a defenseless innocent kid I'll never know. Just thinking about it makes me sick." the military man finished and furrowed his brows for a moment. "If there really comes a war in Lior I'll be on the front line that's one thing I know. Ed can thank me later for that." Roy said and grinned and looked out of the window. He was just about to make a comment on how late it was before he was cut off.

"Shut up... I ain't... thankin' you for... nothin'..." the voice said and suddenly all eyes were on Ed again, who apparently hadn't been asleep the whole time after all. Roy opened his mouth to make a comment, but was cut off by Ed again. "Sh...Shitty... Co'nel..." the boy finished and tried his hardest to frown. Roy just grinned wider and patted Ed's right leg lightly before leaning on the bed again.

"No you shut up you little brat. Don't make silly comments when you need to be up and around as fast as possible, use your energy on healing instead. In case you didn't hear, I still need that report." Roy retorted and smirked.

Ed sighed a painfully raspy sigh and squirmed in the bed. "Al...make the Shitty Co'nel go... away. He... reeks of paperwork... and stupidness..." he said and swallowed a few times, a tiny, weak smirk on his lips.

"Damn kid...Just got to sleep already." Roy grumbled, but ended up chuckling in the end. He turned to Winry, when Ed appeared to obey with a grunt. "Miss Rockbell, I'm sorry to say this, but you'll have to retreat soon. The only person allowed to stay with Fullmetal during night is Al. I'm sure you can stay at the Hughes' if you like. You might have to make your visits here a bit short and not too frequent, though." He said and decided to explain why since judging by the look in Winry's eyes, she wasn't going to stay away before she got a satisfying reason. "The doctors have found that his skull has suffered from a number of hits, too, some of them have inflicted minor damages to his brain, as a result of the concussion. He'll not do well with too much commotion, no matter how many times he says he can handle it. We don't want to take any chances. This **should** get better about the time he gets well enough to move around, but until he's able to stay alert for a whole day and open his eyes, we can't be certain of how much he can handle." The military man finished and looked at Winry. She looked down with a sad look in her eyes. Apparently she hadn't known of the concussion and the results of it either.

"I see. Well, I'd really like to stay with the Hughes' if they can have me." She said quietly. Roy nodded.

"Then it's settled. I'll go call Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and hear of he can take care of you until Fullmetal gets better, but I'll have to return to work after that , so I'll send someone to pick you up." Roy send her a smile before heading back to the door, Hawkeye in his heels. He stopped in the doorway and looked at Al, "By the way, do you need anything before I go Alphonse?" he asked. Al jerked at the sudden attention toward him and nodded.

"A few books would be nice, and a blanket. It gets so cold at night." the young boy said and before Roy began to question him on how he would know it was cold at night he answered the question "Brother told me that." Alphonse said and suddenly he chuckled fondly. Everyone in the room raised a questioning eyebrow. "It's nothing. I was just reminded of yesterday, when a nurse came in with something to give Brother some warmth other than a blanket. She gave him a cup of hot milk and he just got so mad, he almost yelled at her. If you see her you might want to apologize for him. She got really scared." he said and everyone in the room either laughed or chuckled at the memory of Ed's outrageous hate for milk. That and his height was two of the easiest topics to stir up his short temper.

"Well I'll see what I can do. I'll see you tomorrow Alphonse, Winry." Roy said and nodded a goodbye at the two before walking out, Hawkeye bowing slightly and giving the two a small warm smile before following her commanding officer through the door.

When everything was silent again Winry sat down at a chair near the bed. She looked up at Al. He was looking back at her as well. "It seems every time we see each other it's because there's something wrong with Brother." Alphonse said and Winry smiled.

"Yeah we'll have to do something about that." she replied. She slid her hand under Ed's flesh one and put her remaining hand on top of it. She squeezed it slightly, a faint hope rising in her that he would wake up again to speak with her, but this time he just kept sleeping. She felt guilty when she found herself wanting to shake him awake so he could start some random heated argument between the two.

A few minutes passed in silence and Al sat down on a chair on the other side of the bed and Winry let her elbows rest on her knees after releasing Ed's hand.

"I... never knew of the concussion. His brain has been damaged?!" she exclaimed and her hands trembled slightly when she ran them both through her blonde hair.

Al jerked a bit, not by surprise, though. "As Mustang said, it's not necessarily permanent, but yes. His brain can suffer from acute stress when there's too much commotion around him or when there's too many people around him. That, the doctors are sure that will go away again, but they think there might be something more wrong, though. It wasn't just one hit after all, there was several hits and the doctors say that unless he's extremely lucky at least one of the hits to his head will have done some sort of damage. Until Brother's well enough for a throughout examination, the doctors won't be able to find out what it is exactly or if he somehow escaped with just the fright. I really don't like the thought of that. I can't stand the thought of Brother having a brain damage. I mean this is **Ed**, not just a normal person, things like that shouldn't even be possible for him." He said and bowed his head. Winry nodded faintly. She agreed, something like a brain damage had never even come to her mind as a possibility, Ed always seemed raised over that. Al looked so much up to his brother, he believed that nothing could happen to his brother, his role model, his guardian. And for Winry, Ed was almost just as invincible, she, of course, didn't look up to him as a brother the way Al did, but she admired his physical and mental strength to the degree of looking up to him in that way, and even though she usually looked down at him literally, he was taller than most people in both experience and maturity. For both Alphonse and Winry, it hurt immensely to know that when Ed woke up he might not be the person he once was. He could be paranoid over nothing or he could lose some or all of his knowledge in alchemy and science, and one of the worst things the two could imagine; he could have lost his memory.

Then, when they both sat there thinking almost similar thoughts, there was a knock on the door. Soon after the door opened to reveal the dark haired Lieutenant Colonel, Hughes. He waved at the two with a grin on his face and also gave a small wave to the sleeping Ed. Winry already missed his boisterous way of bursting through the door and yelling a smart comment resulting in pissing Ed off immediately. But still, Winry was thankful he didn't, she knew noise would be a really bad thing for the golden haired occupant of the room and Hughes being the grown up he was, knew that there were times to make fun and jokes and times to be serious.

"Hey guys I came to pick up Winry, Elysia turned into a little sun when she found out her big sister Winry would be staying with us so I could hardly say no now could I? By the way Alphonse, I met a nurse on the way here, and I figured I'd ease her from the trouble of bringing this to you when I was on my way here anyway. A blanket and a few books, eh?" Hughes said cheerfully and went to Al and gave the blanket and the books.

"Thank you, Sir." Al said and put the stuff on the foot of Ed's bed.

"So, how have he been doing, that brother of yours? He looks better somehow."

"He has been getting better, you shouldn't hope for him to wake up all of a sudden, though, he's been awake two and a half times already, I think he'll be sleeping until late tomorrow." Al answered, his voice cheerful at the thought of his brother getting better, even though the signs were subtle.

Hughes raised his eyebrows, "Two and a **half**?" He questioned.

"Well the first time he woke up today he wasn't really able to say anything, but he was aware of my presence. I count that as a half time of him being awake, he did try to open his eyes at that time.

"Well that's great then! Last time I was here he was only awake for one of those half awake times. He's really a crazy kid, I've never heard of anyone recovering from something like what he's been through that fast." Hughes said and straightened up before looking at Winry. "Well, Winry, maybe we should head home so Ed can have a good night's sleep and besides Gracia have been cooking dinner for an extra guest and she said she'd make desert too. Do you have any luggage?"

Winry nodded and pointed at the small suitcase hiding near the door, she had brought clothes just in case there would be something keeping her from returning to Rush Valley. It wasn't much but it would do.

"Okay let's go then. You two take care of yourselves." Hughes said and waved at Alphonse who grinned inside the metal armor. He just loved the way Hughes always talked like there was nothing wrong with Ed and even greeted him normally every time he came to visit. It was so comforting in a special way. He waved his hand at the military man and turned to fix the blanket over his brother.

Winry followed Hughes through the door and took one last glance at Ed before closing the door behind her.

--

It was a week and three days later that she visited the hospital again. Three days since last time she had visited and far too long in Winry's opinion. She was looking forward to seeing Ed again. She heard he had been getting much better than last time she saw him and she hoped she could get to talk to him again. Only one of the previous time she had visited he had been awake to speak with her. She even heard his eyes had gotten so much better so that he could open them. She missed those golden eyes. She never knew that she would get to miss them so much, but she hadn't seen them since last time she had fixed his automail and now she really wanted to soo them again.

The ride to the hospital was not very enjoyable. Hughes was surprisingly silent the entire way, no not surprisingly, shockingly in fact. The whole atmosphere in the car was almost suffocating, as if the man had just found out that his aunt was suffering from a deadly disease. He didn't follow her into the hospital either, just told her to call when she wanted him to pick her up.

The atmosphere was not as bad as in the car until she reached section 30 F. The atmosphere was practically suffocating. There was not many people in the ward, but she could feel something bad happen and it felt hard to swallow and she had no idea what was wrong. The way to room 118 was too long she thought.

She gently pushed the door open and suddenly all the bad feelings flew away as soon as her eyes hit the blonde in the middle of the room. He was sitting awake and alert on the bed, eyes open and pointing down at a book in his hand, his arm was still in a cast although. The bandage around his jaw had been removed and reduced to only a strap around his forehead and the metal plates on his nose had been removed as well and the nose itself looked straight and perfect as always, only it was still purple. His chest was covered by a light blue hospital shirt, but there was still bandage visible by the edge of the collar. His hair had been completely washed and was put up in a high ponytail, it looked fresh and shiny again. His left hand still had tubes in it, but the monitors were all gone and that left the room completely silent. He still looked tired, very tired. But even though his condition had improved greatly, he looked nothing close to happy, not even content. He actually looked... **sad**.

He looked up when Winry entered, his eyes straying over the room and looking at the small coat rack behind Winry.

"Who is it?" he asked and Winry raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why it's me Winry, who else would it be?" she said and went to his bed. He just looked back down into his book a shudder visibly running through his body. He hadn't looked at her yet. "I'm glad to see you up and awake. You're even reading a book, huh?" she said cheerfully, hoping her happiness would rub off on him. It didn't though and he just kept looking down into the book.

"Ed? What's wrong?" she asked. It had been long since she'd seen him like this. He didn't answer, just turned his head slightly away. "No don't look away, look at me. Tell me what's wrong. Why is there this whole bad atmosphere around here? And where has Al gone?" she asked, her voice louder than before. She didn't like this. There was definitely something wrong. Winry chewed on her bottom lip.

"Why do you look so sad and why can't you look at me?" she kept asking, but he just closed his eyes slowly, continuing to point them away from her, and let out a deep, shaking and almost inaudible sigh.

"I can't, Winry." he whispered and Winry wasn't sure he had even spoken. She grew frustrated, she could feel her hands starting to grow unsteady and she clenched them to keep them in place. "Whatever has happened you know I'll always be there, you can always face me no matter what has happened or what you've done, you know that. What's so bad you can't even look at me, huh?" she tried with another tactic, to soothe and comfort instead of pressing and letting her frustration out at him. But when she still didn't get a reply and Ed just squeezed his eyes tighter together, she grew desperate and sad. _"Just what in the world had gotten into him!?"_

"Ed, look at me!" Winry cried and grabbed his arm, the muscles were tense under his skin.

"I can't!" he yelled and looked down with a pained expression. "I can't Winry, I can't look at you. I'm sorry." he whispered.

Winry's hand's were trembling on him arm from the sudden raise of volume and she looked at him puzzled and concerned. "But why? Why can't you look at me Ed?" she asked softly and at the Ed raised his head and turned to face her with a genuinely pained expression. His eyes lifted themselves tiredly and slowly up to her face, but they didn't look her in the eye. They didn't even look at her. They didn't look at anything. And that's when Winry realized what was wrong. He hadn't even needed to explain it at that time. But he did and the words hit her like a brick and left her mind blank with shock and horror.

"I'm blind, Winry."

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_A/N: There, that's all for now, I hope it was worth the wait. I did work hard on it.. Please don't flame with "OMG nooo damn you for making Ed blind!!11one" I decide here and I could just as well make it amnesia and recieve less flames, but amnesia is used to many times I think it's getting kind of old.. I won't say anything about the next chapter, no title nor update time, since the only thing I know is what's going to happen in the chapter. _

_I'm sorry and thank you all for being to patient and wonderful._

_Until next time_

_-Shirou Hana_

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